building bridges to the community - office of university ... · building bridges to the...

CREATING PARTNERSHIPS INVESTING IN YOUTH BUILDING COMMUNITY

CommunityBuilding Bridges to the

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Rutgers University–Newark: An Anchor Institution*

Rutgers University–Newark (RU-N) is a remark-ably diverse, urban, public research university that is not just in Newark, but of Newark—an anchor of our home city. Our goal is to move

away from traditional models of “public service” in which faculty and students do things for “a passive and needy public,” as public historian Scott Peters has put it, and engage instead in “public work that taps and engages and develops the civic agency, talents, and capacities of everyone, inside and outside the acade-my.” Our strategic activities in these areas already range from cross-disciplinary initiatives rooted in community, to partnerships with diverse “communities of experts,” to co-created spaces in the city and region. Throughout, we seek to pool the expertise and energies of our faculty, staff, and students with those of partners from across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

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*www.newark.rutgers.edu/anchor-institution


3CommunityBuilding Bridges to the

O UCP draws upon decades of accumulated experience, insights and expertise to serve as a bridge that

connects Rutgers University–Newark to the community. Collectively, these elements define its mission and

are the cornerstone of its vision to support RU–N’s role as an anchor institution.

The wisdom of bridges comes from the fact that they know the both sides, they know the both shores!

—Mehmet Murat ildan, Turkish playwright, novelist and thinker

*www.newark.rutgers.edu/anchor-institution


OUR MISSION The mission of the Office of University-Community Partnerships is to serve as the nexus that connects Rutgers University–Newark students, faculty and staff to expand, create and promote reciprocal and mutually beneficial partnerships that support and align with the university’s strategic engagement priorities.

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OUCP Strategic Priorities

• Invest in collaborative academic and research programs

• Invest in our students

• Invest in anchor institution collaboration

• Leverage our diversity and build civic dialogue

• Tell the Rutgers University–Newark story more effectively


OUCP History

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T he Office of University-Community Partnerships (OUCP) at Rutgers University–Newark (RU–N) has a dynamic history grounded in principles of education, service, and community building.

Founded in 2001, the department originally was engi-neered to promote positive public relations and provide quality information and customer service to the campus community and to off-campus inquirers and visitors, along with providing conference and event planning and man-agement expertise to faculty, staff, and community orga-nizations. In this capacity the department began to lay the groundwork for creating avenues for connecting the community to Rutgers–Newark as well as training Rutgers students to engage in these efforts.

In 2005, the department was designated the Office of Campus and Community Relations (OCCR) to reflect its increasingly prominent role in advancing broader insti-tutional efforts to strengthen ties between Rutgers and Greater Newark. Annually, it employed approximately

80–100 students to staff the Campus Information Center (CIC) and processed over 15,000 calls and in person inquiries, promoting positive university-community rela-tions. It forged sustainable partnerships with the Newark Literacy Campaign to launch the America Reads Program and with Dr. Mark Gluck to launch the African American Brain Health Initiative (AABHI). Several academic year and summer youth enrichment partnership programs were also launched including the College Tutors Partner-ship Program (with Newark Public Schools), the Sum-mer Future Business Computing Institute (with area high school faculty members) along with Rutgers faculty part-nership initiatives such as the RU-N/Merck Bioethics Insti-tute and the Center for Information Management, Integra-tion and Connectivity (OUCP/CIMIC) Technology Summer Camp. Significantly, in 2008, OCCR launched the RU Ready for Work Program (RUR), which has become one of RU-N’s signature youth development programs. Each year hundreds of youth from Newark and the Greater Newark area are inspired to envision new options and

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possibilities for the future via the department’s numerous on-campus and outreach initiatives.

In 2010, the department was renamed the Office of University-Community Partnerships (OUCP). While it maintained its initial mandate for engaging faculty, staff, students and community partners, the expanded OUCP embarked upon a journey to create greater collaboration and cooperation, internally and externally, to infuse teach-ing, learning, scholarship and service while engaging and developing the civic agency, talents, and capacities

of all invested partners. A key strategy for implementing this work, is to create collective impact models that incor-porate a framework for community-based participatory partnerships (CBPP). Notably, OUCP led a team of internal and external partners to secure a Promise Neighborhood Planning Grant for the Fairmount neighborhood in New-ark’s West Ward. In 2014, OUCP began the process of re-envisioning the departmental mission, reorganizing its infrastructure and reframing its strategic objectives, which are aligned with RU-N’s strategic plan.*

*(See: http://www.newark.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/run_strategic_plan_-final.pdf).

We invite you to view a snapshot of

OUCP Today!


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D r. Diane Hill, Assistant Chancellor, is the founding director of the department that evolved into the Rutgers University–New-ark (RU–N) Office of University-Community

Partnerships (OUCP), the campus’s first institutionalized office to advance meaningful collaboration between the campus and community. Renowned for her expertise in building community relations, Dr. Hill has over 30 years of professional experience. A Newark native, she man-ifests a deep propensity for and commitment to creating partnerships with school systems, child and youth focused service agencies, community-based organizations, civic and elected officials, businesses, members of the RU-N community and others. Her goals are to improve the quality of life for the City’s residents, improve educational outcomes for students and support RU-N’s Anchor Insti-

tution mission. She has assembled a talented cadre of professional staff along with undergraduate and graduate students to fulfill OUCP’s mission.

The words of Margaret Wheatley, capture Dr. Hill’s philos-ophy of engagement.

DIANE HILL, Ph.D.OUCP ASSISTANT CHANCELLOR, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY–NEWARK

11I believe we can change the world if we start listen-ing to one another again. Simple, honest, human conversation. Not mediation, negotiation, problem-solving, debate at public meetings. Simple, truthful conversation where we have a chance to speak, we each feel heard, and we each listen well.

—Margaret Wheatley


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Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.—Henry Ford


C reating meaningful, sustainable partnerships, internally and externally, is one of the hall-marks of the department’s evolution. OUCP’s efforts yield successful programs, activities

and relationships that are mutually beneficial to RU-N and Newark communities.

Internal PartnershipsFor over ten years OUCP has spearheaded the outreach component of the African American Brain Health Ini-tiative (AABHI) in partnership with RU–N’s Department of Neuroscience. AABHI is a collective impact participa-tory research model for African American senior citizens and their caretakers, designed to educate Newark area residents and stakeholders regarding brain-healthy life-style practices and Alzheimer’s awareness. Residents are solicited to participate in related research that will inform researchers, healthcare providers, caretakers and seniors.

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Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.—Henry Ford

For more information on AABHI see http://brainhealth.rutgers.edu/


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OUCP supports the Chancellor’s Seed Grant Program estab-lished to advance RU–N’s Strategic Priorities by providing funding to faculty and staff for “innovative projects that support scholarship, education, and community engage-ment”. In 2015, OUCP partnered with faculty from five different disciplines to establish community advisory boards, conduct community research and education initia-tives, and to plan events and meetings that engaged area residents and stakeholders.

OUCP offers forums for internal dialogue to support RU–N faculty and staff engagement work via the Community Conversations series. The inaugural offering was a Stra-tegic Engagement Forum for Seed Grant awardees to inform them of the scope of services and expertise that OUCP could provide and to ascertain what issues they would like to see addressed in future forums.

OUCP partnered with faculty and staff from various schools and departments to form the Committee on

Student Engagement, a campus-wide initiative to engage students in the community, assist them in building social capital and creating pathways to proactive citizenry. RU–N Student-Community Engagement Connection (SCEC) provides a framework that utilizes a web-based system for connecting RU-N students with community–based service learning, scholarship, research and volunteer opportunities in Newark and Greater Newark. SCEC’s primary objectives are to: a) Cultivate and nurture part-nerships between the university and community agencies and b) Prepare and place students in meaningful, mutually beneficial community engagement opportunities.

Partnering with Dr. Nabil Adam, Vice Chancellor for Re-search and Collaboration, and members of his team from the Center for Information Management, Integration and Connectivity (CIMIC), OUCP developed the RU-N Commu-nity Engagement Questionnaire (CEQ), an online survey to capture the community engagement work conducted by RU-N faculty and staff. The Community Engagement


local healthcare agencies, food retailers, civic and community senior care providers, and churches are engaged by OUCP, with 1,200 participants in AABHI programs and events, annually.

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hours of tutoring and support were provided by America Reads and Jumpstart.

Over 12,100

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External PartnershipsOUCP partners with external entities to administer high impact, collaborative university-community conferences, colloquia, and events. Providing leadership, event man-agement support and community bridging capacity, in

2015–17 OUCP assisted in hosting over 1,500 partici-pants at on-campus events annually. Among these were:

• 34th Annual NJ Black Issues Convention (NJBIC)

• Newark Women in Media Film Festival and Jazz Concert

• I Have a Dream Foundation National Conference

• Campus Compact Eastern Regional Conference

Directory (http://cimicapp.rutgers.edu/CEQ/) is publicly accessible and is one of the vehicles used to tell the RU-N community engagement story.

AABHI PROGRAMS

LITERACY


Education is our passport to the future for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.—Malcolm X

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RUR Summer Program students and staff

RUR Criminal Justice Canine Unit

Read Across

America


Education is our passport to the future for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.—Malcolm X

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OUCP has an extensive history of partnering with community-based organizations to adapt and initiate programs and services that enrich, elevate and improve educa-

tional outcomes for children and youth. OUCP is a long-time champion for promoting literacy in Newark. The participation and commitment of RU-N students, staff and faculty have been vital to the success and longevity of this important work. As a member of the Newark City of Learning Collaborative (NCLC), OUCP embraces NCLC’s goal to increase the percentage of Newark residents with post-secondary credentials to 25% by 2025. Much of our work is designed to help NCLC meet that target.

LiteracyFormer United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said that “Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope”. OUCP is committed to addressing literacy needs, es-pecially among Newark children and youth. Our work aligns with the goals of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s Read and Believe initiative as we build and sustain “literacy bridges” in the city.

America Reads A partnership with the Newark Literacy Campaign, begun in 2001, represents OUCP’s longest running literacy initia-tive. Since its inception, hundreds of RU–N students have helped thousands

of Newark children, youth and adult learners acquire/improve literacy skills.

RUR Criminal Justice Canine Unit

35 students employed

14 sites assisted

3,006 hours of tutoring provided

Program Stats 2016


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First BookFirst Book is a non-profit social enterprise that provides new books, learning materials, and other essentials to children in need. OUCP partnered with First Book and the NJ Secretary of Higher Education and enlisted RU-N and RUR students to assist.

In 2016, 16,000 books were distributed to Greater Newark area schools, CBO’s and early childhood sites.

Enrichment Programs

OUCP develops partnerships to offer educational enrichment programs that enhance educational, career and 21st Century skills development for

children and youth. Its compendium of programs range from one to six weeks during the summer to a highly successful year-round model. These programs provide multi-year student engagement, create pipelines that afford greater access to post-secondary education and training, and help construct a new trajectory for future student success.

Jumpstart at workphoto: www.jstart.org

JumpstartJumpstart is a national early education organization hosted by OUCP. Jumpstart recruits, trains, and assigns college students to provide year-round educational sup-port for preschool children in low income neighborhoods to achieve the goal of ensuring that every child in Ameri-ca enters kindergarten prepared to succeed.

66 college students employed

6 preschool sites served 140 children

9,100 hours of tutoring provided

Program Stats 2016


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RU Ready for WorkA partnership with the City of Newark’s NewarkWorks office, the Newark Public Schools and more than 25 civic and community–based entities, RU Ready for Work (RUR),

established in 2008, is a year-round replicable youth work/career readiness demonstration program that has emerged as one of OUCP’s signature initiatives. RUR provides a three-tier framework for work and career read-iness that enrolls 10th, 11th and 12th grade students and is developed around evidence-based practices, innova-tion and periodic assessment. Enrolling students from up to 11 public and charter high schools, RUR has consis-tently produced retention, graduation and college-going rates among its participants that far exceed those of the district:

• Since 2011, 100% high school graduation

• Since 2013, 95–100% percent program completion

• Since 2013, 100% enrollment in 2- or 4-year post- secondary institutions.

• 50% of 2016 and 2017 graduates enrolled in Rutgers University.

RUR offers its summer internship program as part of OUCP’s Summer Academy.

RU Ready for Work: Tools for Change SeminarRUR partnered with Duke University’s Dr. William Tobin to offer a select number of graduating seniors an accel-erated college preparatory seminar, Tools for Change. Students learn to create a literature review, interact with local stakeholders and utilize participatory research methods to address a student-identified community issue. Students analyze the data, generate a report and present their findings to community leaders and stakeholders. The goal of the program is to practice effective strategies by which students can promote positive changes in their community.


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Summer AcademyThe OUCP Summer Academy provides educational, career and leadership development programming and primarily targets Newark area youth. In addition to the RUR Summer Program, OUCP partners with internal and external sponsors to provide a quality learning expe-rience for more than 200 participants each summer. Hosted on the RU-N campus, participants are supported by RU-N students, staff and faculty.

Center for Information Management, Integration and

Connectivity Technology Summer Camp (OUCP/CIMIC), a S.T.E.A.M. initiative, helps middle and high school stu-dents explore science and technology disciplines based on challenging and real-world problem solving and com-puter generated art techniques.

Sadie Nash Leadership Project-Summer Institute gives young Newark women the opportunity to explore their current and future leadership and self-efficacy while build-ing a strong sisterhood with other young women.

Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) BizCamp inspires young people from low-income communities to stay in school, to recognize business opportunities and to plan for successful futures. Students develop a business plan and compete for implementation funds.

New Ark Freedom School, a partnership with the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), RUN Graduate School Newark Public Schools (NPS), Newark Fairmount Prom-ise Neighborhood (NFPN), Thirteenth Avenue/Dr. MLK School, Jumpstart, Afterschool All-Stars and Whole Foods, is held at the school for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. It provides a curriculum and activities designed to help curb summer learning loss and close achievement gaps along with building strong, literate, and empowered chil-dren prepared to make a difference in themselves, their families, communities, nation and world today..

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Thirteenth Avenue/Dr. MLK School Community School ProjectOUCP partners with NFPN and Thirteenth Avenue/Dr. MLK School, located in Newark’s West Ward, to create a community school building upon elements of the success-ful CDF Freedom School model. Community Schools are designed to generate improved student learning, stronger families and a healthier community. Both Jumpstart and America Reads tutors are assigned to support the after-school academic skills tutoring programs.

21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) PartnershipOUCP partnered with NPS to provide afterschool per-sonal and career development workshops for 8th to 10th grade male Soaring Scholars students at four high schools and referred RU-N students to fill intern positons at various 21st CCLC sites.

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STRONG, HEALTHY, AND SAFE COMMUNITIES

Strong, healthy, and safe neighborhoods are places where people and their families can thrive, linking this area of anchor institu-tion activity to many other aims. These are neighborhoods that thrive economically, where healthy lifestyles prevail, and where young people can readily see realistic pathways from cradle to rewarding careers, staying in school to prepare them for an adulthood characterized by economic and civic productivity and lifelong learning.

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In partnership with the RU-N Admissions Office, OUCP designed and conducted special campus tours for Greater Newark area ele-mentary and middle school children. (See next page)


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Campus Tours— Elementary/Middle School Students In partnership with the RU-N Admissions Office, OUCP conducts special campus tours for Greater Newark area elementary and middle school children.

Following an Early College Exploration program and tour for 30 students from Madison Monroe School 16 in Eliza-beth, NJ, the school’s staff person sent an email stating:

“. . . thank you so much for the wonderful day at Rut-gers. On a personal note this was the “BEST” campus tour that we’ve had in many years. I’ve been to many colleges/universities and nothing compared to what your department did for our students.”

OUCP also provides campus tours and informational pro-grams for the NPS 21st CCLC Soaring Scholars program.

On-Campus Youth—Focused Events Annually, OUCP partners with various external (e.g. Program for Parents, Newark Public Schools, Prosecu-tors Office) and internal partners (e.g. School of Public Affairs and Administration, School of Criminal Justice, Public Safety, Rutgers Business School) to provide on-cam-pus programs and conferences for Newark area youth. Included among them are:

• Seventh Annual Teen Summit— My Life, My Family, My Future. (Programs for Parents)

• Job Shadow Day (Newark Public Schools)

• Fourth Annual Latino Male Conference (Boys to Leaders Foundation)

• Blueprints for Success—Preparing for College, Work & Beyond Conference (United Way)

• Third Annual Forensics Science Program (Newark Public Schools/Irvington HS/Charter school students)


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“The best partnerships aren’t dependent on a mere common goal but on a shared path of equality, desire, and no small amount of passion.”

—Sarah MacLean, New York Times, Washington Post

& USA Today bestseller author.


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Health and Wellness

OUCP partners with organizations, the private sector, residents, stakeholders and others to support health education and promote healthy

lifestyles. From pre-natal care and early childhood ini-tiatives to school-aged children, parishioners and senior citizens, we aim to help reduce the health disparities that are characteristic of residents in many of Newark’s com-munities. We also work with key stakeholders to support the investment of resources that will improve the quality of life and transform communities to become that “good place for all of us to live in” (adapted from a Theodore Roosevelt quote). While most of our efforts have focused in Newark’s West Ward, we expect to implement and/or apply our successes and lessons learned to other areas of the city.

Start Healthy Stay Healthy Early Childhood Nutrition Education This partnership with Nestlé/Gerber USA, Program for Parents, NFPN, churches, CBO’s, and NPS provides health education for parents and care givers of children 0 to 3 years.

The project is an intergenerational model that utilizes RU-N graduate and undergraduate students as trainers in infant nutrition and care.

211 residents, including teen par-ents, grand parents and caregivers were trained

43 residents recruited to train as peer educators were trained

150 surveys collected to assess program effectiveness and inform future service delivery

Program Stats 2015–17


Rutgers-Newark OUCP

has a long-term vision and strategy for improving our

neighborhoods. We have already felt

the positive impact of its work.”

—Newark Central Ward Resident

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Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of ServiceOUCP’s AmeriCorps VISTA Fellow spearheaded a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service program through a grant, provided by Iowa Campus Compact and the Corpora-tion for National and Community Service (CNCS). The program provided fun, interactive nutrition education, food items and other resources to students, parents and residents from the surrounding neighborhood of Thir-teenth Avenue/Dr. MLK School.

• 55 RU-N student/staff volunteers participated

• Approximately 105 attended the event

RU Ready for Work Nutrition and Health WorkshopsAn OUCP graduate intern/registed dietician developed a Nutrition and Healthy Living workshop series for RUR students and parents. The workshops educated partici-pants on healthy meal planning and affordable healthy food items. Twenty-six parents completed the USDA Food

Security Survey for Households with Children. The find-ings will be factored into future RUR programming and stakeholder engagement. From among the results derived we learned that (see table below):

of total respondents were food secure

58%

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of the total respondents were food insecure without hunger

27%

of total respondents were food Insecure with hunger, (Moderate)

15%


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Early Childhood InitiativesResearch has shown that conditions that influence early childhood development have a direct affect on learning and cognitive development. OUCP partners with Pro-gram for Parents to expand efforts to build quality child-care in NFPN/West Ward neighborhoods, including providing parent and provider early childhood education and training.

West Ward Community CoalitionOUCP serves as the backbone organization for the West Ward Community Coalition which convenes a diverse group of more than 350 residents, civic, public, private, and faith-based entities to engage in open dialogue to identify work currently underway, issues and needs to be addressed and to engage in participatory problem solv-ing. Begun in late 2016, the coalition applies a collec-tive impact strategy and hosts large and small meetings and work sessions to address community issues.

American Heart AssociationOUCP partners with the American Heart Association and recruits RU-N students to collect and document data on health disparities in the community. This col-laboration generated new partnerships

with New Hope Baptist and Bethany Baptist Churches and resulted in the completion of 5 reports with data ana-lyzing health policies that impacted the community.


OUCP STAFF

Diane Hill, Ph.D. ...............................................................................................................................................Assistant Chancellor

Donita Devance, MCRP .........................................................................................................................................Associate Director

Michael Dillard, Ed.D. ............................................................................................................. Program Director/RU Ready for Work

Deborah Flamengo, MA ........................................................................................................................Special Projects Coordinator

Roxanne Hall, BA .............................................................................................................Program Coordinator/ RU Ready for Work

Beverly Noel, BS ......................................................................................................................................... Technology Coordinator

Dawn Odom, BA ...................................................................................................................Graduate Coordinator/America Reads

Yvette Ortiz-Beaumont, MPA .................................................................................................................................. Assistant Director

Lenore Pearson, MPA, ABD ...................................................................................................................................Associate Director

Sheronia Rogers, MCED .......................................................................................................................................Associate Director

Zakkiyyah Sally, MEd., MA .......................................................................................................... Program Director/ RU-N Jumpstart

Stacy Ragin, BA ........................................................................................................................... Trainer/Start Healthy Stay Healthy

C. Maxene Summey, BA .......................................................................................................................Special Projects Development

Habeebah Yasin, BA .................................................................................................................................AmeriCorps VISTA Fellow

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LOOK

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OUCP continues to sustain and expand upon its broad compendium of programs, initiatives

and services to fulfill its mission and support Rutgers University-Newark’s role as an Anchor

Institution in the City of Newark: through forging sustainable internal and external partnerships;

facilitating faculty/staff community-focused scholarship; research and teaching; providing educational

enrichment and pipeline programs for children and youth, offering opportunities for community—based

scholarship and learning for RU-N undergraduate and graduate students, and helping to build strong,

healthy communities.

We are in the process of launching a number of new initiatives, expanding some existing ones, and

developing new partnerships. We will also unveil our new website and other web-based features.

We look forward to an exciting and productive year as we continue Building Bridges between the univer-

sity and community that are transformative and enduring.

We invite you to learn more about our work by visiting our website at:

http://oucp.newark.rutgers.edu/ or you can contact us directly at:

OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS RUTGERS UNIVERSITY-NEWARK

158 Washington Street • Newark, NJ 07102 • p. (973) 353-1630, f. (973) 353-1631


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